It looks like JP Morgan is the appointed one as the body of Bear Stearns was still warm when Morgan pounced on Washington Mutual. But WaMu was a beast of a different kind, and aided by other suitors escaped. Morgan was outraged:

J.P. Morgan executives were reportedly furious that WaMu had rebuffed the advance and immediately cut off negotiations, the Journal reported.

“They are unbelievably well-positioned,” said William Smith, chief executive of Smith Asset Management, which owns JPMorgan stock. “They have — in Jamie Dimon’s own words — a fortress-like balance sheet.”

But riddle me this Batman: weren’t all the banks bankrupt just before the Morgan-Stearns deal, and didn’t everyone lack visibility on everyone else as seen by rising LIBOR rates, so wasn’t Morgan just another dead man walking? How then out of one FED sponsored deal did JP Morgan come from the middle of the pack to its front? I’m not sure, but I would sure like to know the details of that Bear Stearns deal.